A federal judge in Florida, United States has scheduled a trial date for the former US Presdient Donald Trump in a case charging hin with retaining hundreds of classified documents case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.

The May 20, 2024, trial date, has been set by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon. It is a compromise between a request from prosecutors to set the trial for this December and a bid by defence lawyers to put it off indefinitely until sometime after the 2024 presidential election.

If the date holds, it would follow close on the heels of a separate New York trial for Mr. Trump on dozens of state charges of falsifying business records in connection with an alleged hush money payment to a porn actor.

The decision sets the trial deep in the 2024 race for the White House, coinciding with multiple GOP presidential primaries. It serves as a rebuke to Trump and his legal team, who sought to postpone the trial until after the November 2024 general election.

Cannon's order, however, means that the case will unfold at a much slower pace than recommended by Smith's team. The special counsel proposed a fast-paced timeline that would have initiated the trial in mid-December of the current year. Such a schedule would have wrapped up the trial before primary voting commenced in the 2024 election, where Trump is the leading GOP candidate.

While the majority of state primaries will conclude by mid-May, some states, including Nebraska, Maryland, and West Virginia, are set to hold their primary elections on May 14, with Oregon voting the following week and New Jersey scheduled to vote on June 4. History has shown that the nominating process can remain a delegate fight until early summer, despite the likelihood that it will be essentially decided by May.